Marriott adopting more restrictive cancellation policy in 2015
Jan 15, 2015, 8:37 am
#106
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 625
I made a bunch of back to back weekly reservations in November for January & February 2015 travel at a normally DOA cancellation policy FS hotel. Pretty sure DOA was on the reservations. They now seem to be magically changed to 1 day before. Any one else see that or I'm I imagining this?
Jan 15, 2015, 8:39 am
#107
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2002
Programs: UALifetimePremierGold, Marriott LifetimeTitanium
Posts: 71,132
Just checked my corp travel site and tons of Marriott's still exist there in large cities but rarely anything in the small cities.
No one from Marriott has any comments about this change? I haven't read or saw anything on it.
First time I get charged because of missed flight or change of plans last minute I am out and off the SPG. I am LP and enjoy Marriott but it's a two way street. For a $200 cancel fee they will lose customers for 1000's of nights and bad news. Not worth it IMO.
No one from Marriott has any comments about this change? I haven't read or saw anything on it.
First time I get charged because of missed flight or change of plans last minute I am out and off the SPG. I am LP and enjoy Marriott but it's a two way street. For a $200 cancel fee they will lose customers for 1000's of nights and bad news. Not worth it IMO.
Cheers.
Jan 15, 2015, 9:16 am
#108
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 263
A chat with the manager and they ended up not charging me.
Jan 15, 2015, 7:06 pm
#109
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: UA GOLD MM,WN CP A+list, HH Gold,MR LT Titanium
Posts: 2,184
Ugh. As I expected, almost all of the Marriotts in our travel portal have been moved to "non compliant" as of Jan 1 due to the cancel policy. (A recent query of the entire Washington DC area turned up one Spring Hill Suites with a 6PM cancel.) Apparently our company, which is rather large, wasn't large enough to keep a 6PM cancel attached to our corporate rate code.
If I badly want a Marriott, I can probably still get it through an exception process. But without that, it's mostly Starwoods, Hyatts, and Fairmonts - with the occasional Hilton mixed in.
I've enjoyed Starwood and won't mind going back to them, but I had hoped to do 1 to 2 more years of solid Marriott travel to lock up LT Plat. That's now going to be a slower trek...
If I badly want a Marriott, I can probably still get it through an exception process. But without that, it's mostly Starwoods, Hyatts, and Fairmonts - with the occasional Hilton mixed in.
I've enjoyed Starwood and won't mind going back to them, but I had hoped to do 1 to 2 more years of solid Marriott travel to lock up LT Plat. That's now going to be a slower trek...
Personally, I know that the first time I encounter a property that is unwilling to waive the fee if circumstances beyond my control occur, Marriott will move pretty close to the bottom of my choices.
Jan 15, 2015, 9:03 pm
#110
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: CLT
Programs: AA-EXP, MR-PP
Posts: 3,440
I am "lucky" that I won't have problems with submitting cancellation fees on my expense report. Company I work for would prefer I use pre-paid websites to begin with for some reason. I just don't like the roulette of priceline.com. On the other hand I am LT Plat so it opens options for me, especially in NYC as it seems that even FFI in LIC is getting pretty pricey on certain days in $250+ range.
Jan 16, 2015, 5:26 am
#111
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Some place in this wonderful world (usually at 39,000 ft in seat 1C)
Programs: CO Gold Elite / NW Gold Elite
Posts: 13,747
Suggest you post that on Insiders. But I'm a bit confused on the large/small city. That sounds more like your own corp making decision. BTW - I thought I read that SPG has a similar day before policy, so before you jump ship you might want to check that the other ship doesn't have the same problem.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Jan 16, 2015, 5:41 am
#112
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: PBI/FLL/MIA
Programs: DL DM/2MM, MR Ambassador, National EE
Posts: 1,614
I don't think I have ever had any Marriott hotel charge me for a reservation I missed due to flight delays/changes. I've always called the hotel up, let them know the issue and even if it was very late in the evening, they had no problems canceling or changing my reservation.
Jan 16, 2015, 11:24 am
#113
Join Date: Oct 2001
Programs: LTP, PP
Posts: 8,705
the reservation system captures all changes and the policy that was in effect at the time the reservation was made however the change in policy was announced quite a while ago, Marriott put the change in place around the time you made your reservations for arrivals starting 1/1 so it's possible you made your reservations after the announced changes but again the system would have captured it (I don't see hotels manually going through making the changes, the time involved would make it an idiotic task)
Your Reservation
You may cancel your reservation for no charge until February 8, 2015 (1 day[s] before arrival).
From the reservation email dated 11/17/14:
Rate and Cancellation Details Rate and Cancellation Details
• Please note that a change in the length or dates of your reservation may result in a rate change.
• You may cancel your reservation for no charge until 06:00 PM hotel time on Monday, February 9, 2015.
So I'm not going crazy (yet!)
From this week, REN FL Tampa (large city) 1 day before, Gadsen, AL FI (small town), 6pm DOA.
Marriott is really starting to irk me on many fronts...
Jan 16, 2015, 3:12 pm
#114
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Williamsburg, VA
Programs: DL DM, Bonvoy LTT, HH Diam, UA Silver, USAF million miler ;)
Posts: 1,596
I sent a note of complaint to Marriott and recommend others follow suit.
Jan 16, 2015, 4:06 pm
#115
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: NYC
Programs: Amtrak Select Plus, Marriott Platinum, Marriott Lifetime Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,123
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.3; en-us; HTC_T120C Build/IML74K) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)
I'm steering away from Marriott, even for leisure travel. Impromptu weekends are less impromptu with this restriction.
I'm steering away from Marriott, even for leisure travel. Impromptu weekends are less impromptu with this restriction.
Jan 17, 2015, 7:50 am
#116
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2002
Programs: UALifetimePremierGold, Marriott LifetimeTitanium
Posts: 71,132
I spend 150+ nights / year in hotels (169 in 2014) and have never had any hotel chain charge me when flight problems cause me to not make it somewhere, never, not once. They always waive the cancellation penalty and cancel my reservation with no charge. I have even had pre-paid, no-cancel rates completely refunded. Of course if I'm staying at a Marriott and need to cancel I almost always stay at a Marriott property in whichever city I end up in...
. Now that Marriott has changed its cancel policy you might (as ky soldier encountered when she tried to cancel due to flight issues a few posts above).Cheers.
Jan 17, 2015, 8:31 am
#117
Moderator, Marriott Bonvoy & FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: McKinney, TX, USA
Programs: United Silver; AA Plat/2MM; Marriott LT Titanium; Hilton Gold
Posts: 11,727
Jan 18, 2015, 8:08 pm
#118
Join Date: Feb 2005
Programs: Marriott Lifetime Titanium (former PP), Hilton Silver, UA Silver, AS Member, Hertz 5*
Posts: 3,906
The hotel business, like the travel business in general, is cyclical. If the chains do not back down in the next downturn, I expect a lot of leisure travelers to book hotels at last minute. The revenue managers may end up having half of their rooms booked two days before arrival. I have decided to not book rooms for day of arrival on trips. I would rather pick another hotel than have to explain why I should get a waiver. I am not going to buy travel insurance for this.
Jan 26, 2015, 1:55 pm
#119
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: CLT
Programs: Marriott Plat, AA Gold
Posts: 1,076
Didn't have an issue canceling a reservation for tonight due to the potential blizzard in NY. I called the hotel directly who transferred me to customer service where I was put on hold, so I hung up and called the Platinum line. I specifically asked if I would be charged anything and they said no I had until 6:00 PM, so maybe it is actually an elite benefit? (or maybe the rep just wasn't aware of the new rule).
Jan 26, 2015, 2:48 pm
#120
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Aug 2002
Programs: UALifetimePremierGold, Marriott LifetimeTitanium
Posts: 71,132
Didn't have an issue canceling a reservation for tonight due to the potential blizzard in NY. I called the hotel directly who transferred me to customer service where I was put on hold, so I hung up and called the Platinum line. I specifically asked if I would be charged anything and they said no I had until 6:00 PM, so maybe it is actually an elite benefit? (or maybe the rep just wasn't aware of the new rule).
We had a report up thread where someone had to cancel due to flight cancellation (not this storm & not in northeast) & the hotel held firm to the new cancel policy.
Cheers.